AUVERGNE-RHONE-ALPES ENTREPRISES

Their core work

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Entreprises is a French regional business development agency that provides hands-on innovation management support to SMEs participating in EU funding programmes. They act as Key Account Managers for SME Instrument (later EIC) beneficiaries, helping small companies navigate EU innovation support, accelerate their growth, and maximize the value of their grants. Their work is essentially a bridge between EU-funded SMEs and the regional innovation ecosystem in the Lyon/Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes area.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early work (2015-2018) was tightly focused on the SME Instrument programme, providing Key Account Manager services to help beneficiaries build innovation management capacity. From 2019 onward, their scope broadened to cover additional EU instruments — Fast Track to Innovation, Future and Emerging Technologies Open, and the EIC Pilot — reflecting the EU's own restructuring of SME support under the European Innovation Council. The progression shows an organization that grew its mandate in step with EU policy changes rather than pivoting to new domains.

They are tracking the EU's shift from SME Instrument to EIC, positioning themselves as regional intermediaries for the full range of EIC-supported companies.

How they like to work

They always participate as a partner, never as coordinator, working within a very small and stable consortium — only 2 unique partners across all 4 projects, all within a single country. This indicates a tightly integrated team delivering a recurring regional service contract rather than a research consortium. Working with them means engaging a reliable, operationally focused partner with deep roots in one specific region.

Extremely compact network: only 2 consortium partners, all based in France. This reflects their role as a regional delivery partner in a nationally coordinated SME support service rather than a pan-European research collaborator.

What sets them apart

Their value lies in deep regional knowledge of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes innovation ecosystem combined with practical experience managing EU-funded SME portfolios. Unlike research organizations or consultancies, they serve as an embedded interface between EU programmes and local SMEs, with four consecutive contract cycles proving sustained trust from the Commission. For anyone building a consortium that requires regional SME engagement or dissemination in southeastern France, they are a proven operator.

Highlights from their portfolio

• AURASME
  The founding contract (2015-2016) that established their role as Key Account Managers for SME Instrument beneficiaries, with the highest single-project funding at EUR 98,039.
• AURASME4
  The most recent iteration (2020-2021) with expanded scope covering EIC Pilot and FTI beneficiaries, showing the evolution of their mandate to the full European Innovation Council portfolio.